Those of us who grew up in the 1950s or earlier recall Watkins, Fuller Brush, and if it was in a semi-rural community, the milkman, iceman and bakery truck. Today in Oaxaca door-to-door sales and services continue to thrive, perhaps less so in the centro histórico (historic downtown) apart from propane and water. But venture beyond and you’ll be amazed at the multitude of benefits available at one’s doorstep… in Third World Mexico we still have conveniences long lost in so-called “modern society,” and yes, Avon.

It may not be surprising that in a society where food is so in our faces we have regular home delivery, at times more than once daily, of tortillas, tamales, fruits and vegetables, and breads and pastries. On an irregular basis a young boy knocks with coffee by the kilo flavored with vanilla and the fruit of the mamey (ma-MAY) tree. Another day it’s an elderly woman with herbs; and sometimes a teacher supplementing her income with weekend sales of large crispy fritters known as buñuelos, accompanied by warm liquid honey. The best of all foodstuffs are fried plantains plied in a steam wagon carted in front of our residence, the purveyor more than pleased to top the plastic plateful with fresh cream and sugar.

There’s much more that enables us to live a hermit’s existence … a virtual home shopping channel at our doorsteps. Neighbors with from-the-home businesses knock to see if we can use new draperies, or maybe a shawl made by relatives in a mountain village. No? Then how about a hand-woven reed garbage pail, sombrero or basket for dinner rolls? On occasion men ring with pillows, brooms and mops, at times even with furniture, strapped to their backs. Whenever there’s a new gadget in town, it seems to travel right from the landing dock to our doorstep, most recently the battery operated reading lamp that attaches to a book. We even have the equivalent of the Encyclopedia Britannica salesmen of the 1960s, consisting of teams of youths dispersed throughout particular districts selling sets of books for supplementing children’s education, at $350 USD a set!

On a different day the multi-pack battery vendor comes by, but we’ve learned to be wary, since there’s nary an Eveready, Engergizer, or Copper Top. And of course with Oaxacan obsessive sensitivity to the cost of electricity, how better to light up one’s day than to answer the door to find the neighborhood fluorescent salesperson. Even the odd oriental-style rug hawker has his route, perhaps not so surprising in a society already saturated with tapetes (rugs) produced in nearby Teotitlan del Valle, and where locals long for anything imported.

Where Christianity reigns, non-Catholic sects are making inroads, with dark suited, starched white shirted Jehovah’s Witness or Mormons attempting to convert. And if it’s not to feed the soul, then it’s the body that gets attended from the comfort of home. The Ministry of Health harkens by to see if there are children under five who require inoculation, on a subsequent occasion to check our cholesterol, and then a few months later to scrutinize water quality in the cistern and provide advice as to how to improve it. To further regulate our bodily functions, and mind our water usage, the municipality comes a knocking with the offer to convert the innards of our toilets, free of charge, from regular flush mechanisms, to the new, three or six liter flush unit. Push the blue button for liquids and chrome-colored plastic one for the rest. When the census people come by, they too are obsessed with personal waste, asking how many toilets we have in our home. The young girl was taken aback, not when I answered “seven,” but rather in response to her next question as to how many full-time residents we have in the house: “two.”

I recall long ago feeling both comforted and as proud as could be whenever my mother would put a gold star in my sticker book after completing my assignments and chores. Here it’s government putting stickers on the front of our home to signify to the next employee coming by that we already “gave at the office.” No need to retain in the recesses of my mind that uneasy feeling that some day I will no longer feel that nurturing maternal comfort, since we’ll always have big brother looking over us, the Government of Oaxaca.

Alvin Starkman together with wife Arlene operates Casa Machaya Oaxaca Bed & Breakfast ( http://www.oaxacadream.com ). Alvin received his masters in social anthropology in 1978, and his law degree in 1984. Thereafter he was a litigator in Toronto until taking early retirement. He and his family were frequent visitors to Oaxaca between 1991 and when they became permanent residents in 2004.